Project of Heart unveiled
Residential school legacy remembered
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 17, 2013
INUVIK
The residential school legacy resonated with Inuvik residents Oct. 10 as Project of Heart was unveiled at the Inuvik Youth Centre.
Joanne Henry organized "Project of Heart," which was unveiled at the Inuvik Youth Centre Oct. 10. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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Project of Heart is a nation-wide program to commemorate the decades of residential school history throughout Canada, which is especially poignant in communities such as Inuvik, said Joanne Henry, who is one of the project co-ordinators. She's the executive director of the Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools (CAIRS) in Whitehorse.
She and the other organizers, Samantha Chiasson and Vern Swan, visited communities in the NWT as well as the Yukon to provide residential school survivors and their families a chance to participate in the project.
Participants were asked to provide a small tile to the framework. Most included the names of family members or a short message, Henry said.
She became involved in the project when she and other organizers realized no one else from the Yukon was taking part. Since the Yukon has a long history in the residential school saga, she said she was determined to find a way to jump in.
From there, the project spread to the Inuvik and Beaufort Delta area, which has more affiliation with the Yukon than other parts of the NWT.
"I brought up 500 of the tiles and I went home with 40," she said. "So there was great participation here. And we did that it in about three days, so it was awesome."
"At one point, we had the kids from the school come in to a classroom and it was just full," she continued. "So it was great, just great."
The unveiling at the youth centre was the grand unveiling for the delta area, Henry said.
The tile idea, she explained, began with a teacher in Saskatchewan who was trying to find an effective way to teach about the history of residential schools, Henry said. She stumbled on the idea of the tiles in her classroom, and it proved overwhelmingly successful.
One of the Inuvik participants was Shaomek Bernhardt. He's a regular visitor at the youth centre.
"I contributed a tile with a heart on it," he said. "I feel sorry for the people who went to residential schools."
Lonnie Taylor Jr. travelled from Tuktoyaktuk to see the unveiling. He also contributed a tile for his grandparents.
"I knew my grandparents went to residential schools and I wanted something to remember them," he said.
